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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Oi cute family!! How is everyone doing? Thank you so much for the WONDERFUL emails this week. Seriously. Loved every single one. You are the best :) Sounds like you guys are busy as every with the yard and everything else. Lots of work! Summer cleaning haha.. we are preparing to take on the winter here :) But how great to hear that everyone is well. Jess, way to go on your talk :) I know you did wonderful, because you have such a powerful testimony that it doesn´t even matter if you were nervous because your testimony was certainly carried into the hearts of everyone there :) Love hearing about all the mission calls. Crazy things are happening! The Lord is hastening the work. So cool to see it all rolling forth.

Everything is going great on this end of the world. One sister who lived with us went home this week because of health problems, so we are in TRIO now :) Haha I´ve never heard anyone speak highly of a trio, and admitedly it´s not proving to be my favorite thing in the world. I think we have 3 of the most opposite personalities in the world. But it really is going well :) We are laughing up a storm in the streets. We´ve started a new game that we play in the streets.. it´s a word game, it´s rather ridiculous, but we never cease to laugh throughout the day. It´s good to keep our spirits hight, no matter how ridiculous our ways are :) Our teaching as a trio has definitely got some work to do... but we´ll get there. Besides it´s only going to be for two weeks until transfers.

We´ve got a great group of investigators right now. We have two baptisms set for this week. One is the mom of the young girl we baptized a few weeks ago. She is SO special!!! Ah, she brings such joy to my heart :) The sweetest spirit is always present when we teach her. They are truly the humblest of families. This family has nothing. Nothing. But they are deeply rooted in their faith in Christ and find joy in what matters most. It´s going to be such a special baptism! Yoohoo!!

Yesterday was a conference via satellite with the 4 (i think) southern states of Brazil. We heard from various area leaders and then from Elder Richard G. Scott. Oh, he´s so wonderful :) He speaks Portuguese... he also speaks Spanish... and sometimes he forgets which language he´s speaking and mixes the two :) Hahaha is portugues is very difficult to understand, but it was great anyway. He´s such a dear!

In other news.. I have athlete´s foot... hahahah seriously Brazil is not doing much for my beauty or for my feet. Gross. But... I´m treating it and it appears to be getting better. (Thank goodness for that first aid kit you sent with me mom! It had exactly what I needed :) )

Passed 5 months in the mission this week...can you believe it?? Holy cow. It goes fast.

This week I studied the sermon on the mount again. It´s so beautiful. If you´re needing something to study this week, study that. It´s great. So applicable. Also if you haven´t read Our Search for Happiness, READ IT. It´s perfect. This goes for family, friends, members, and non members. This book is perfect. It will help your faith and answer any questions you have about the gospel and the church :)

Well.... I think that sums up the week okay. I am one happy little missionary. Life is wonderful in the service of the Lord :)

Have a wonderfully happy week!! Know that you are all in my prayers. Thank you for your love and example! I feel your prayers and support daily. I LOVE YOU, family!!!

Monday, April 15, 2013

Thank you so very much for all your emails and wonderful words of wisdom :) I love you! So great to hear about all the happenings back home. You all sound wonderful. Keep the good news coming, okay?:) Did you guys enjoy conference? How´s school, work everything going? Mom, glad you got connected with the branch president here!! It will be so fun to have that link! He´s great and loves talking to our families :)

Então... I´m here in São Borja!! It´s going great! So much to tell... let´s begin eh? Well, leaving Parque Pinheiro was very difficult... I cried, Sister Nascimento cried, we all cried :) A lot. But, eventually we had to just rip of the bandaid and I had to leave my little family there and my mommy and head on to new adventures! I don´t know if tranfers get easier over time, but I hope so! Haha because it felt like I was leaving home all over again. And leaving behind our investigators was one of the hardest parts.. to now leave them in the hands of other missionaries after you develop such a love for them and desire for their well being and progression in the gospel. But I suppose that´s the way the mission goes huh? And of course, Heavenly Father kees a close eye on all of them. But, we arrived here late Tuesday night and entered into the nightmare of a house we live in :) it´s horrid, but.. i was also very spoiled with the house in Parque Pinheiro, so... I guess it´s only fair to have a crappy house now haha. But it´s right next to the chapel which is SO nice. Everything is very close to home here which is great. We live in the city here.. it´s refreshing.. civilization :) It´s a nicer area here than the other area.. there´s some beautiful homes here! And there´s stop lights.. also something we didn´t have in the last area haha :) My companion, Sister Prisbela is great. She works so hard! She has a huge desire to talk to everyone, to teach everyone. I think that she and Sister Nascimento are possibly the two most opposite sisters in the mission :) But she really is great, and I know I`m going to learn a lot with her. She has a great love for the work and for the Lord.

We had two baptisms yesterday! It´s a little different because I met them just a few days ago and haven´t been a part of their journey, but it´s still wonderful to see people take this step in their lives and to see the happiness that shines from their eyes :) I´ll send pics.

This week has been a little bit of a whilrwind and I´m not completely settled in yet. But I really am very excited to be here. The Lord always knows best, and though it was a huge surprise and challenge to be transferred, I know the Lord has great things in store here in São Borja and that the timing of the change was wisdom in Him. It was time for the baby bird to leave the comfort of the nest :) The Lord is truly in the details of our lives. Every little thing. He organizes it all. And with so much care and love. I know that this is truly His work, that the gospel brings a deep joy and happiness that nothing else in the world can bring. I know that our Savior lives and that He sacrificied everything that we might have JOY. The Lord desires nothing more than our happiness in this life and the life to come, and the gospel is the way to obtain it :)

Have I mentioned how great the mission is? :) It´s really really great.

I love you to the stars and back, cute family. You are my light and joy! Thank you for the prayers, love, and support. I feel it daily and couldn´t do this without it! Have a most wonderful week, FULL of joy and laughter :)

Well, I just had a whirlwind of a moment... I logged on, was reading emails chipper and carefree as can be... then we got a phonecall from the LZ... I´m being transferred! Holy cow... I´m in a little bit of shock right now... We thought we were safe :) President had told us both that we´d be together until the end, all our leaders ensured us yesterday that we´d stay together until Sister Nascimento goes home after this transfer... but..... the Lord has other plans it looks like :) Bah... I´m a little shaky and the tears are fighting to come out. I´m headed to São Borja tomorrow morning... 6 hours from here. My new companion is going to be Sister Prisbella, a Brazilian. Very sweet. A little bit nervous based on some of the things I´ve heard, but.... we´re walking forward with faith :) I´ll say tchau to my sweet companion tomorrow morning and hope to see her again at some point after the mission. She is an angel. Funny how the Lord works... I sent an email a couple weeks ago feeling stressed and frustrated with the companionship, and now I´m sitting in tears at the thought of having to say goodbye to her. We´ve grown closer than ever this past week and half or so and are genuinely the best of friends at this moment. Ah, minha nossa. But, here we go :) This is the mission and I know the Lord knows what´s best for me. I know that I´m headed onto a new area, new adventures, and new experiences. It´s going to be great! Faith in every footstep. :)

Okay, anyway... thank you so much for all the emails! Everyone sounds wonderful! Joe, look how cool you are on TV!!!! I had a feeling you´d be interpretting for conference finally :) How neat. I really wanted to watch conference in ASL.. but the other Americans weren´t all over that idea :) But what a neat experience! You are incredible! Glad to hear you guys had such a wonderful time in St. George :)

This week was great. Really. Sister Nascimento and I had more challenges and more difficulties, but more laughs and friendship than ever before. We have some wonderful people here that we are teaching and I know Sister Nascimento will continue to help them progress to baptism. It´s been a wonderful, wonderful journey here in this area and ward.

Conference!!!!! Yoohoo!! Oh, it was so so so wonderful. I was on cloud nine all week anticipating conference, and on cloud ten the whole weekend. It was amazing. Conference was a little different than sitting at home on the plush couches with the smell of mom´s homemade food, but it was just as wonderful and sweet. We watched it in English which was the first greatest blessing :) I was a little worried that we wouldn´t be able to. But we had 6 of us americans crammed into the ward secretary´s office and watched it online :) It was so great. And we only spoke english while we were in there which was also great haha. It´s refreshing once in a while :) But the talks were absolutely incredible. Exactly what I needed. And definitely powerful for our investigators as well. Oh, how I love this beautiful gospel. What a blessing to have the truth. What a blessing to have a living prophet and apostles. THIS is true, and everlasting happiness that ONLY comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Well, my mind is a jumble right now so I´ll leave at that for this week :) Until next week from São Borja.... bah. Send prayer please, I need them :) I love you to pieces. You are the light of my life! Thank you for all your love and support!